2024 AMA East Hard Enduro Round 7 Results

| October 15, 2024

A chilly but beautiful autumn morning set the scene as IRC Beta’s James Flynn earned his second consecutive career win at the Mad Moose Hard Enduro, the penultimate round of the AMA East Hard Enduro series presented by IRC Tire, October 12-13.

James Flynn at 2024 Mad Moose Hard Enduro — **Beta-mounted James Flynn earned his second consecutive career win at the Mad Moose Hard Enduro, the penultimate round of the AMA East Hard Enduro Championship in Michigan.**

Story and Photos by Stephanie Vetterly

Hosted by the UP Sandstormers in Marquette, Michigan, the course was comprised of three laps of 14 miles of flowy, but tight, single-track, with the usual hard splits for the Pro and A-class riders. This year, the course was dry, with traction being deceptive: the soil was loose but hooked up well, while some of the rocks had moisture in them from the cold and were incredibly slick.

Flynn was able to take the holeshot with Rieju USA’s Quinn Wentzel hot on his heels. The two riders would spend the entire race within seconds of one another. Passing was a challenge due to the course design, and while Wentzel was able to find a better line through some of the hard sections to make a quick pass, he wasn’t able to hold the position. On the final lap, almost to the finish line, he caught a rock and went over the bars, narrowly avoiding a tumble down the nearby cliff. Flynn was able to pull away and see the checkers just shy of two minutes ahead.

“Today was good,” said Flynn. “It was tough to pass out there. At the beginning, I knew it was important to get out front, and I was able to do that. Quinn [Wentzel] and I went back and forth a couple times. There was some opportunity to pass. In some of the hard bits, sometimes you were able to take a bit riskier of a line, especially in the lappers. This is the driest I’ve seen it out here, but it was cool, because it opened some lines you typically wouldn’t be able to do. At the same time, if it had rained, it would’ve been a totally different race. [The win] feels good. Danny [Lewis] was here, Quinn [Wentzel] was here, they’re both very, very good riders. I was very nervous coming into it, but I just focused on myself during the race and thought about riding the best I could in each moment. The win is good and everything, but I think I’m just happy with my performance and where I’m at. I think it’ll be a good spot going into the national races next year.”

Quinn Wentzel at 2024 Mad Moose Hard Enduro — **Rieju’s Quinn Wentzel (#5) pressured Flynn right down to the end, finishing second overall.**

“That was the theme of the day,” said Quinn. “[I was] literally just wheel-to-wheel with James all day. I got in front of him, he was on my wheel, and then he got in front of me. We just never lost each other. There was only one tough spot on the track where we had to get off and push on lap one—that was it. Whoever got out of that spot first, made it to the finish first. It was just single-track from there to the finish, so I knew in my mind that whoever was getting out of there first on lap three was going to win, and that’s how it happened. This was probably the most fun I’ve ever had at this event; the club put a lot of work into it, and I think they did a great job.”

Third place was a battle between Liqui Moly Factory Beta Team’s Danny Lewis, Rieju USA’s Hayden Mosa and Champion Brick’s Tobin Miller. This was Lewis’s first race after a six-month hiatus battling Lyme disease. Unfortunately, he found himself last going into the woods when his bike wouldn’t start on the line. After catching up to Mosa, the two riders’ bikes hooked up and crashed in the middle of the course. With nowhere to go, the rider immediately behind rode over Lewis’ bike, catching and removing the right handguard in the process, causing him to spend the rest of the race battling with saplings on the narrow course trying to engage his front brake.

Daniel Lewis at 2024 Mad Moose Hard Enduro — **Daniel Lewis was third overall.**

Mosa’s levers and front end were twisted, and the crash quickly left him as the last rider from the front row. He was able to keep pace and make the pass on Lewis and Miller at the beginning of lap two. Toward the end of the lap, he got a little off his line, and a small sapling hit his brake line perfectly, snapping it clean off the master cylinder. Finishing out the lap and easing his bike back to the pit area, he repaired the line, but the brakes wouldn’t bleed. The leaders had already finished their three laps, and Mosa decided to call his race there. He would place seventh on the day in the Pro class.

Miller would keep pace with the leaders until a side hill had his number, allowing Mosa and Lewis to make the pass. He would find a bit more flow in the third lap, finishing 12 minutes behind Lewis for fourth place.

“I think today was pretty good given my circumstances,” said Lewis. “I caught up to Quinn [Wentzel] and James [Flynn] and tried to ride with them for a little bit. It felt like the pace was good and every time I tried to pass those guys, I would wreck. It was super hard to pass, so if you tried to make a pass, you were doing a line you didn’t want to do or you were doing a line that was kind of stupid; every time I tried to do one, maybe it would go well, maybe it wouldn’t. I would end up wrecking and falling back. It just kept snowballing until I was about five or 10 minutes behind. I’m happy with how I felt today for not doing anything for [almost] six months.”

Rounding out the top five was Jeremie Lanthier.

The USHE East Hard Enduro series will conclude on October 27 with the Fallen Timbers Hard Enduro in Little Hocking, Ohio.